Museums, national monuments, art galleries, exhibits, cemeteries, gardens, historic sites and other public viewing venues have the common goal of disseminating information to the public. Generally, there is only a certain amount of information that gets disseminated as this is commonly only what is displaced adjacent the point of interest. This information is frequently supplemented by brochures, reader boards, recorded or guided walking tours. The problem with this system is that the public is forced to listen to information that may not interest them and yet at the same time be deprived of more in-depth information about those points of interest that captive them.
There have been systems developed that utilize RFID chips located at each point of interest that when scanned by the appropriate device, will allow the user to access the limited amount of data stored on the chip (typically only two kilobytes worth) or directly visit a website via a link that is provided by the chip. This website (accessed by the users personal portable computing device such as a smartphone) would then contain a plethora of sortable data about that point of interest. However, there are few hand held portable computing devices that can read RFID chips without additional expensive, cumbersome equipment, and a close proximity to the RFID chips must be attained, nominally less than seven feet for passive RFID chips. Since cell service may not always be available, may be expensive or may be subject to a weakened signal the point of interest, this system is not always a viable option.
Other common alternatives to the RFID chips are RuBee™ which is a two way active wireless protocol for the transfer of data, and Memory Spot™ which is a passive RFID transponder. Neither of these can be utilized without a special reader, not found on any portable computing devices. Near Field Communication (NFC) devices such as a Bluetooth Beacon™ do allow a standard smart phone to read its broadcast data, but problems arise when the distance between similar nearby devices is short, thus eliminating their use where the points of interest are close. The use of a Global Positioning System (GPS) in conjunction with other data transmission means such as Infrared (IR), Free Space Optical Communication (lasers) also has its own problems.
Henceforth, an improved method and apparatus for localized data retrieval for selected points of interest that can operate on a smart phone or portable computing device, and that can easily differentiate between data streams related to adjacent, close points of interest, and that can be economically constructed, maintained and set up, would fulfill a long felt need in the fields of knowledge/data dissemination to the public. This new system utilizes and combines known and new technologies in a unique and novel configuration to overcome the aforementioned problems and accomplish this.